The company marketing Ashton’s iconic Witchwood venue says it anti-
cipates there will be a number of
interested parties who will be looking to buy the venue.

Sean Hartley of Jenics, the leisure specialists who are marketing the venue, which is up for sale at an asking price of £225,000, said: “This is a rare opportunity to purchase an historical and established music venue which has always had a loyal following and regularly takes over £10,000 a week.

“After the support the pub received when it was faced with closure 10 years ago, we anticipate there will be a number of parties interested in taking this venue to a new phase in its history.”

It is the first time in 18 years that the Witchwood has gone up for sale.

Nominated as music pub of the year twice, the venue has been a hub for music in the North West since the 1960s.

The sale comes ten years after the venue was nearly closed down as part of wider regeneration plans for the centre of Ashton.

But after a popular campaign backed in its thousands, the pub was saved from demolition.

Dennis Matthews, of Tameside Radio, has put on shows at the venue for many years and told us: “I really hope it’s kept on by someone as a music venue and that it carries on being managed in the way it has been.”